Mac Clipboard Managers Compared

Eight clipboard managers for Mac, ranked by what they're best at. The complete category roundup with feature notes, pricing, and honest tradeoffs.

Published April 28, 2026 10 min read By John Sciacchitano

The macOS clipboard is one item deep, which means a clipboard manager is one of the first three utilities most Mac users add to a fresh machine. The category is mature, healthy, and well-served, meaning there's a free option that's good enough and several paid options for specific needs.

This is the comprehensive roundup. The companion Maccy alternatives piece is shorter and Maccy-focused. This one ranks all eight credible options for buying or installing in 2026.

Disclosure: I ship TeenyClip, one of the entries below. I'll try to assess fairly.

Quick rankings by use case

Best free overall: Maccy
Best paid one-time: Pastebot ($20) or TeenyClip ($5) depending on depth needed
Best for cross-device sync: Paste (subscription) or Pastebot (one-time + iCloud)
Best if you already have Alfred or Raycast: use the built-in feature
Best minimalist: Flycut or Maccy
Best for power users: Pastebot
Best for sensitive workflows (excludes apps): TeenyClip or Pastebot

The full eight

1. Maccy

Free · Open source

The default recommendation. Native Swift, MIT licensed, maintained by Alex Rodionov since 2019. Searchable history, keyboard-driven, intentional minimalism. maccy.app

Best for: 80% of clipboard users. Stop here if you don't have specific needs.

2. TeenyClip

$4.99 once

Native Swift, single-purpose, $4.99 lifetime. Image previews, pinned snippets, app exclusion list. The polished paid path for users who want Maccy-shape with more features and don't want subscription. teenyclip.com

Best for: paid Maccy alternative. More detail in the alternatives piece.

3. Pastebot

$19.99 once

Tapbots' clipboard manager. The deepest feature set in the category. Filters that transform clipboard content (strip formatting, lowercase, base64), pasteboard sequences, per-app rules. Best build quality of any tool here. The learning curve is real.

Best for: developers, power users, and people who want the most capable tool one-time pricing. tapbots.com/pastebot

4. Paste

$2.49/mo or $14.99/yr · subscription

Polished UI with image and code previews. iCloud sync across Mac, iPhone, iPad. The subscription is the catch. If iOS clipboard sync is a hard requirement, Paste is the most polished option.

Best for: cross-device clipboard users who don't mind subscriptions.

5. Alfred Clipboard History

£34 once for Powerpack

If you already use Alfred 5 with the Powerpack, the Powerpack includes clipboard history. No need to add another app. The clipboard feature isn't the main attraction of Alfred, the launcher is, but it's competent for the integrated workflow.

Best for: existing Alfred users.

6. Raycast Clipboard History

Free / $10/mo Pro

Raycast's clipboard is part of its launcher. Free tier covers basic clipboard. Pro adds AI formatting and team sync. Same logic as Alfred, no need to add a second app if Raycast is already part of your workflow.

Best for: existing Raycast users.

7. Flycut

Free · Open source

The simplest option. Plain text only, no images, no formatting. Originally a fork of Jumpcut. Worth knowing about if you find Maccy too complex. github.com/TermiT/Flycut

Best for: minimalists and old-school Mac users.

8. CopyClip 2

$8 once · App Store

Older paid clipboard manager. Native, sandboxed (App Store). Less polished than Pastebot or TeenyClip and slower release cadence. Worth listing for completeness; not the first choice in 2026.

Best for: niche use only.

The full feature comparison

App	Price	Image previews	iCloud sync	App exclude	Snippets/pinning
Maccy	Free	Limited	No	Limited	Favorites only
TeenyClip	$4.99	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Pastebot	$20	Yes	iCloud	Yes	Yes
Paste	$15/yr	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Alfred	£34 (suite)	Limited	No	Yes	Snippets
Raycast	Free / $10/mo	Yes	Pro	Yes	Yes
Flycut	Free	No	No	No	No
CopyClip 2	$8	No	No	No	No

What to think about beyond features

Privacy

A clipboard manager records everything you copy. That includes passwords, 2FA codes, banking info, private messages. The minimum bar for a clipboard manager is to let you exclude specific apps from tracking (1Password, banking apps, password managers, terminals). Maccy excludes some by default. TeenyClip, Pastebot, and Paste have explicit exclude lists. Flycut doesn't and shouldn't be used in mixed-data workflows.

Storage

Clipboard managers store history in some local database. If you copy 10MB images regularly, the database grows. All paid managers let you set a max history size. Maccy is configurable; the default is fine for most users.

Privacy modes

Some apps (Pastebot specifically) have a "private mode" toggle that pauses clipboard recording. Useful for password-heavy workflows.

How to migrate from one to another

None of these tools have meaningful migration tools. Clipboard history is by nature ephemeral, you don't usually need to bring three months of copies into a new app. The migration path is:

Install the new app.
Configure exclude apps and keyboard shortcut.
Use the new app for a week. If it works, uninstall the old one (use AppCleaner so support files go too).
If you want to import favorites/snippets specifically, most apps have a manual import flow. Worth doing only if you have ~5+ items you don't want to recreate.

The honest recommendation

Most readers should install Maccy and stop. It's free, native, and good. If after a few weeks you find yourself wishing for image previews, snippet pinning, or iCloud sync, then explore paid alternatives. Trying to pick the "best" clipboard manager before knowing your actual workflow is reverse engineering, pick the free option, see what you wish it did, then upgrade specifically.

For paid: Pastebot if you want the deepest tool, TeenyClip if you want the lightest paid tool, Paste if cross-device sync is the killer feature.

$4.99 once. Image previews. App exclusion list.

TeenyClip is the polished paid pick for users who want Maccy-shape with more features. Native Swift, lifetime, 3-day free trial.

Get TeenyClip Maccy comparison